


Oversized Hats and Stupid, Extravagant Cloaks

by anewspringwillcome



Category: Project Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Family Dynamics, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 06:58:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14995334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anewspringwillcome/pseuds/anewspringwillcome
Summary: ... and why both things would eventually come to hold a special place in Therion's heart.An attempt at pickpocketing an expensively dressed traveler turns into Therion finding two new companions, after he swore he'd never do that again.





	Oversized Hats and Stupid, Extravagant Cloaks

**Author's Note:**

> I've been playing a lot of the new Octopath Traveler demo. I was only barely interested in these three, but when I played through for the second time they were my team, and I ended up falling in love with them and the dynamic I imagine they would have. There's something so funny to me about lone wolf Therion being accosted and scooped up by an oblivious scholar dad and his tiny merchant daughter.  
> So I wrote about it.

She looked like a child playing dressup in her mother's work uniform. Her tiny, thin frame and the ridiculous feather sticking out of her oversized merchant's hat almost made Therion laugh, but something about the pleasant look on her face and the way she shouldered a backpack twice her size with a self-assured air stopped him. She took in the city around her with the glowing eyes of an excited toddler, but her body language was poised and certain. As Therion idly turned the onyx ring he had lifted off the owner of the bar that morning in his fingers, he watched this girl compare wares with one of the shopkeepers. Her face was earnest for business as the seller offered her several ancient looking tomes, but her eyes were clearly trained on one in particular: a less impressive volume with a wine-colored leather cover and pages browning with age.  
  
"How much for that one?" the girl asked, pointing out the boring leather tome.  
  
The merchant followed her pointing finger, looking confused for a brief moment. " _That_ one?" He cleared his throat, recovering swiftly. "For such a rare publication, I would be asking at least 400 gold."  
  
The girl's face shifted into a small pout. " _400?_ " She turned to the man at her side. "I guess we can just visit the library, huh?"  
  
The man smiled down at her. "Certainly. The archives are filled with storybooks of that kind."  
  
The two were mid-turn when the merchant reached out a desperate hand after them. "W-wait!" he called. "You… you can have it for 100."  
  
The girl lit up, grinning as she began counting out the payment from a clearly sizeable pouch of coins. Next to her, her older companion took another volume into his hands and began perusing the pages with great interest. Somehow he and the girl made sense as a pair. With expensive clothes and an excessively frivolous cloak which was much too heavy for the hot climate of Bolderfall, he was just as strange as she was. He seemed unaffected by the heat. While the tome merchant was constantly wiping a rag across his forehead, this man hadn't even broken a sweat.  
  
Therion wracked his brain for where he might be from to be so well-dressed. His coloring and style of shoe suggested Atlasdam, but why would someone from Atlasdam come here? Bolderfall wasn't known for its enviable vacation spots. Not to mention how bizarre it was that this guy and the tiny girl at his side, who looked young enough to be his daughter, had clearly just swindled that frantic merchant out of _his_ attempt as swindling _them._ Bolderfall didn't see all that many new visitors -- especially not ones so… _ostentatious._ Could it be they were an entirely different brand of thief, trying out the costumes of merchant and scholar to further their business practice?  
  
No. Therion knew that couldn't be it. They were too… _sincere._ You could see it in their eyes. The way the girl eagerly collected her new purchase. How the man smiled pleasantly at her excitement as he finished reading one last page of the tome in his hands. They manifested honesty in their every action.  
  
It made Therion mad. He didn't like to see genuinely good people to begin with, let alone in Bolderfall, where so many genuinely _bad_ people hung around. Even someone as murky in the area of morals as Therion was could feel bad for kind people being preyed on by the scum of the earth.  
  
But, _he_ also fell into that same category of scum of the earth, and the man's exorbitant Atlasdam clothes were too tempting. He had to have something good Therion could snatch.  
  
"You are aware, my dear, that deceit is not generally considered a desirable quality." The man's voice was light and joking as the pair left the tome merchant.  
  
"Baloney!" the girl said. "This thing isn't worth 400 gold, and you know it!"  
  
He smiled down at her. "Perhaps. Though I would wager it is also worth quite a bit more than 100 gold."  
  
She crossed her arms. "See, now, he lowered it to 100 of his own volition. I would have happily gone to 150." The duo stopped by the edge of the mountain, the girl gazing across the cliftlands before her. Therion darted a hand to the pouch at the man's waist as he passed, loosening the string attaching it to his expensive hand-tooled belt and pocketing the thing in one fluid motion. "So did you see anything like what you're looking for?"  
  
"Unfortunately, no," the man said, and cast a long look over the canyon as well. Therion stopped walking in spite of himself, leaning nonchalantly on the tavern facade in order to eavesdrop. "With the multitude of thieves who populate Bolderfall, I had so hoped for the volume to have found its way here…"  
  
The girl grinned and stooped down, tilting forward on her toes to scoop a desert frog up into her hands. "What's it called again? _Standing at the Fiery Gates of Hell?"_  
  
_"From The Far Reaches of Hell,"_ the man corrected.  
  
"Right." The girl held the desert frog up close to her face and stuck her tongue out at it. "So where did you want to head next, then?"  
  
The man looked thoughtful -- Therion could practically see the gears turning in his head. "I suppose Bolderfall was my only lead. From here on out it shall just be travelling the realm, searching high and low and investigating any matters which seem promising."  
  
The girl whooped, spooking the frog, which lunged out of her hands and hopped away. "Adventure!"  
  
The man chuckled. "Adventure, indeed, my dear."  
  
Therion didn't know what they were going on about, but he had already stuck around too long. Just as he was turning to head back towards the mansion, the man's voice halted him. "Ah, pray do give my lunch back before you take your leave, my friend."  
  
Therion turned slowly back to face the duo. The man was gazing at him with a slightly amused look on his face, while the girl's eyebrows had risen in surprise. Therion figured it wasn't worth pretending. He pulled the pouch out of his pocket and tossed it to the man, who caught it deftly. He was turning away again when, "What!" the girl sputtered, before stepping up to Therion and pointing an indignant finger at him. "How could you steal somebody's food like that? Don't you know some people don't have a lot to eat?"  
  
Therion rolled his eyes, trying not to look as caught off guard as he felt. "I know that perfectly well, kid. If I'da known it was food, I wouldn't have taken it." He leered past her at the expensively dressed man. "And anyways, he doesn't really look like he's having trouble putting food on the table."  
  
That only riled the girl up even more, and just as she was taking another step towards him, the man behind her rested a hand on her slim shoulder. "It is quite alright, Tressa. He is correct. If not for my partiality for Clearbrook leek and radish sandwiches, I would not have said a word."  
  
Tressa crossed her arms, her bottom lip jutting out.. "You can't just let people take advantage of you like that, Cyrus… We had a real problem with pirates back in Rippletide, y'know."  
  
Therion knew he should try and make his escape now, but the nagging feeling of inferiority he felt after being caught -- for the first time in years -- held him where he stood. "How did you know I stole it?"  
  
Cyrus looked at him with piqued interest. "My friend, you did yourself no favors by boring holes into the backs of our heads while we spoke with the tome merchant."  
  
Therion gritted his teeth. He _knew_ that. He wouldn't have stared if they weren't so… well, _the way they were_. That settled it: he was getting away from this freakshow.  
  
"I would ask you about your travels," the man called after him, his voice conversational. "I am searching for something I would expect was taken by one of your own kind."  
  
"I don't know about your book," Therion said. "Never even heard of it."  
  
"Oho, but you are in the business of finding things long thought to have disappeared," Cyrus replied thoughtfully. "If you were to join us-"  
  
"Cyrus!" Tressa exclaimed. "You can't be serious! He's a thief!"  
  
"And I'm not joining you," Therion said. "I have better things to do than go gallivanting across the realm with stuckup Atlasdam and country hick Rippletide."  
  
Cyrus lightly gripped Tressa's wrist to prevent her from lurching forward to attack. "Pray tell me what these ‘better things’ might be."  
  
Therion sighed, wanting to get away from this conversation as soon as possible. "If you _must_ know, I'm trying to get into that mansion at the top of the mountain to steal whatever their supposed fortune is."  
  
"Perhaps we could be mutually beneficial to each other," the man said. "I forget your attempts to loot my pockets, and you join us on our travels. I hypothesize Tressa and I would be more than useful in your attempts at staying alive within so heavily guarded a manor."  
  
Therion rolled his eyes, turning to face them again. "Get real, old man. With that ridiculous cloak of yours and small fry's stupidly giant backpack, you'd get me caught before I even set foot on the premises." He flipped his hair. "A thief can only indulge in the luxuries of being well-dressed when he's highly skilled."  
  
"You shall teach us," Cyrus declared. "I should think we are quick learners."  
  
Tressa tugged on Cyrus' sleeve. "Cyrus… I don't want to steal from people, and I don't think _you_ do either. You're getting in way over your head here."  
  
"Perhaps, but I have the cognizance to realize the knowledge of a thief may be what is necessary to locate what I seek," Cyrus said, setting a hand lightly on Tressa's back. "If you do not wish to accompany me, my dear, I suppose we can part ways."  
  
Tressa's eyebrows were drawn together in frustration. She searched Cyrus' eyes for something, and Therion found himself doing the same. There was something between the two of them -- months of friendship or whatever else you would call their oddly familial relationship -- that planted a weird kind of rotting in Therion's chest. As he watched them have this nonverbal communication, he reminded himself, over and over: he worked alone. He had tried to have a partner before, and look how that had turned out. Darius was _gone_.  
  
But presently, Tressa cast a hesitant look at him. She bit her lip, frowning in deep thought. "Well… _okay_." She pointed at him. "But no robbing the poor! And I'm not stealing anything! It's bad enough to be involved at all."

Therion shook his head in annoyance. "I never said you guys could join me. I work alone."  
  
Tressa stretched her arms over her head. "Look, I don't think Cyrus is gonna let it drop. We're with you whether you like it or not."  
  
Therion glanced at Cyrus, whose face said this was true, and back at Tressa, who smiled at him -- seeming to have accepted him as a member of the group simply out of a hope of helping Cyrus accomplish his goal. Therion could see that it wasn't something she did because she had nothing better to do. The pleasant determination in her face told stories of her own goals and wishes. It seemed Cyrus' were just as important to her as her own. It made Therion angry, and annoyed, and sad, because it made him do what he promised he never would.  
  
_"Fine,"_ he muttered. "This one job, then."  
  
And he started walking towards the mansion. Behind him, he could feel the knowing glance his new shadows shared, as Tressa let out a laugh, and Cyrus opened the pouch Therion had stolen from him to finally eat his lunch. Like they were already old friends, and like they trusted Therion would be with them for many adventures to come. As he glanced back to see Cyrus picking an olive off his sandwich and offering it to Tressa, he _almost_ smiled.

But only almost.


End file.
